INDEX
Attracting Like-minded Individuals by Sharing Your Interest
Kawai: It’s the same with work. I am not that dexterous and can’t do everything, so as a result, I spend more time working with people I can do interesting things with.
Okaya: Do you sometimes get unexpectedly asked to play the bass guitar?
Kawai: Thankfully, people who know me are asking me now, but when I was in SUPER JUNKY MONKEY, I was only active in one band, so when the vocalist passed away and the band went on hiatus, I had no place to play. But I thought that if I stopped playing now, I would never play bass again, so I decided to do whatever I was invited to do.
Okaya: Yes.
Kawai: At that time, there were a lot of terrible invitations, such as “Any girl bass player will do,” and “Are you still playing bass? I had a lot of terrible invitations. I thought it was a little rude to ask someone out without knowing anything about them or even hearing their sound, but I did whatever I could, including that. I had some bad experiences, but I also met a lot of good people, and I learned a lot about what I was good at and what I was not good at.
Okaya: Ah, I see. When I was in my 20s, I worked as a designer in a company, and I could also draw illustrations, and I thought I was good at what I did.
Kawai: Yeah.
Okaya: So, even if I was asked to do work that was not my style at all, I thought I could handle it. The client was quoting me a low price, and I was thinking of them as a bit foolish, which is not a good thing. However, when you take on a job with that kind of mindset, you don’t do it well at all. When I told this to my friend, he said, “What are you talking about?
Kawai: Everyone around me knew you weren’t dexterous.
Okaya: Oh, that’s right! He said. I gradually realized that I should do the type of work that makes the most of my individuality. And the more I did that, the more jobs came to me, saying, “You’re the reason I’m asking you to do this.
Kawai: A long time ago, someone once told me, “If you send out information that you think is interesting, people who think it is interesting will come to you.
Okaya: That’s so true. In the end, work goes better when you are in a natural state, saying, “This is how I am. So now I feel like, “Since they asked me to do this, I can do whatever I want.
